Trumpet Treasure and a Bird Call

My friend Dan sent me a couple of interesting items in email this past week. First is this poster from Club Ruby on Baisley Boulevard in Jamaica, not that far from where we grew up. It is from May 1966 and features a one-night only jazz memorial tribute to Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown and Booker Little. Get a load of the lineup of trumpet players, not to mention Joe Henderson as the guest soloist. Imagine this in a small club in Jamaica, Queens? Dan sent it to me because one of our favorite local record stores, Greenline Records, is mentioned and we have quite a load of nostalgic memories of the owner of Greenline, Ben, as well as one of his employees, Larry. I will save the Greenline/Ben/Larry stories for another day, but wanted to share this cool poster.

Dan also send me this recently discovered interview with Bird. Apparently this radio host, Leigh Kamman, just called Bird out of the blue one day in 1954, spoke briefly to his daughter Kim, and then got Bird on the phone. They talked music, as you can hear, and Bird was quick to mention a new rising star on the trumpet named Clifford Brown, “a tremendous thing to hear.” Then he mentioned Chet Baker and Frank Morgan and a West Coast drummer named “Brownie,” and we can’t figure out who this Brownie is but I’m sure that someone can figure it out, although Bird wasn’t 100% sure that Brownie was the right name, so maybe not. You can also hear how closely Bird was listening to what he called “semi-classical music” at the time. What a treat – hey, let’s pick up the phone a call Charlie Parker and put the conversation on the radio. Love it.